The main battery bank has not been performing to par lately. It takes a full charge but delivers just 200 amps of the full 1600 amps available before it needs a recharge. We never consume more than 800 amps, or 50% of the bank's capacity, before insuring a recharge cycle. The 8 X 4D AGM battery bank is only 14 months old so we suspect a bank reconditioning is needed. So today, Wednesday, we took 4 of the 8 batteries off-line, and discharged them to about 8 volts. This method, recommended by Ample Power a Seattle alternator builder, entails loading each battery with about 5% of it's 200-amp rating until the voltage drops to around 8-volts. It took most of the day until the batteries were almost completely discharged. They stayed between 10 and 11 volts for a long time before succumbing to 8. The discharged batteries were then wired as a 4-battery main bank and a full charge cycle was started. After several charges cycles over several days the 4-battery reconditioned bank is performing much better than the old 8-battery bank. We'll do the same to the other 4 batteries then combine the batteries into an 8-battery bank again. At that point a 15.5V equalization charge will be applied for 8 hours. We expect the reconditioned 8-battery bank to perform as new.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 6 - 8: John Gets a Fish
With the weather turning to rain and winds, the fishing fleet is denied the best angling spots, unless they are OK with rocking and rolling in the big ocean swells. John and Alex fished Eastern Channel over three days, a mostly protected spot a few miles south of Sitka. We trolled in the lee of the islands, with many other boats, and got two fish. One afternoon John hooked a fish and brought it to the boat. It was a King salmon but just 27 inches long, 1-inch short of a keeper. The salmon haven't been in too close to shore around Sitka just yet. Probably good next week when the SLO Town folks arrive. Lets hope the weather gets better too.
We've enjoyed cruising with John. He's an excellent chef who can manage to make eating healthy also quite tasty!
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| Sitka doesn't offer a cruise ship dock like Ketchikan, Juneau and other towns. Tourists pile into shore boats for their city invasion. |
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